‘Move over Banksy!’ screamed the headlines, India’s now got its own indigenous, anonymous graffiti artist painting the town red, rather, black. ‘Guesswho’, images of whose quick, stealthy pieces on Kochi’s walls have now gone viral on the Internet, originally arrived on the scene in 2012, during the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. As something of a counter-movement to the Biennale, whose idea of graffiti Guesswho felt was more like public murals, the artist began his/her own brand of graffiti that lifted cultural references from across the globe and painted them with a distinctly Keralite spin. From Michael Jackson dancing Kathakali, to Mona Lisa in a chatta-mundu , Che Guevara dressed like a coolie, and Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Vincent van Gogh in lungies about to paint houses, Guesswho’s pieces are political satire or sheer comedy scattered across Kochi at the most innocuous spaces — at bus stops, behind toddy shops, by the beach, under roof shadows and beneath tree covers. In an FAQ list of answers the artist recently published, he/she says anonymity was primary because the “art is more important than the artist, and that is generally not the case these days. Being anonymous also helps you to be free of any prejudices about the identity of the artist (gender/religion/caste/age etc.)”
As you walk the streets of Kochi this December, will you spot Guesswho’s next piece just around the corner? Keep guessing!
